Agriculture Loan Products Development at International Executive Service Corps

During Assignment:

• Attend an orientation meeting with the F2F team in Nairobi (USVE will attend remotely while LVE visits the host office)  
• Hold kickoff meeting with the SACCO Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Credit manager to finetune the work plan and expected outcomes (USVE will attend the meeting via video link) 
• Hold an orientation and activity planning meeting with the SACCO Head of Credit (HoC). The HoC will work closely with the VEs throughout the assignment. 
• Conduct Interviews with 3 members of the board to understand the vision and strategy of the institution 
• Conduct Interviews with 3 key staff to understand their perceptions and views on product offering. 
• Conduct interviews with the 5-smallholder farmer clients and 3 non/potential clients to understand their unmet needs.  
• Facilitate a product development workshop with key staff and stakeholders  
• Design the identified product prototypes and their features and benefits 
• Present draft products developed to senior management /credit committee and board representatives for their input 
• Train relevant staff on product testing and roll out
• Finalize the documentation of loan products remotely 
• Hold debriefing with F2F and a possible meeting with the USAID remotely. 
• Develop and submit a final trip report   

End of Assignment Report and Other Deliverables Required:

• Summary report on trends, patterns, and insights on loan products on offer, gaps and opportunities 
• Loan products developed 
• A final trip report detailing work completed as well as recommendations for the host organization. 
• A PowerPoint presentation for debriefing purposes 
• Training conducted, and people trained 
• One blog post or equivalent 

The expertise of Volunteer Experts Requested:  

• Degree in banking, business intelligence or analytics or equivalent with 10+ years of experience 
• Relevant experience (10+ years) in Agri finance and digital finance in (Sub-Saharan) Africa  
• Excellent analytical, and presentation skills. Maximum attention to details and quality of outputs. 
• Experience in rural financial product(s) development using Human-Centered Design (HCD), Agile approaches (5+ years) 
• Experience in loan product testing and roll out 
• Experience in providing technical support to financial service providers (Banks, MFIs, SACCOs) to develop, test, adapt and automate credit scoring scorecard solutions (5+ years) 
• Familiarity and experience in working in expanding access to financial services to SMEs and implementing innovative financial products and/or facilities.  
• Familiarity with the activities required for SME lending development and scaling. 
• Experience in credit risk evaluation and management, especially for SMEs 
• Familiarity with software/API integrations, APS systems, core banking systems, etc.  
• Strong organizational and facilitation skills and the ability to handle complex tasks with tight deadlines  
• Effective written and verbal communication skills